Authorities in the Solomon Islands recently intercepted a foreign-flagged commercial vessel that has been suspected of involvement in transnational organised criminal activities.
Working in collaboration with international partners, the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force and Solomon Islands Customs interdicted the suspect vessel and brought it to Honiara as part of an investigation into its activities.
The vessel has been identified as the general cargo ship Wealth, which currently sails under the flag of Belize. The 19 crewmembers have also been detained.
The crew are believed to consist of Chinese, Indonesian, and Filipino nationals. However, authorities said that the vessel had no complete and legitimate crew manifest present, thus impeding efforts to identify the identities and nationalities of the detained seafarers.
Local authorities said they have been monitoring the vessel's movements since April of this year. This was on the basis of intelligence reports detailing movements that they said were consistent with organised criminal activity.
Authorities are now working to determine whether the ship and its operators have any links to other criminal groups from overseas.
